The Most Popular Questions about AWK

Basically, if you want to talk about what happened to Andrew WK after the year 2004, when he basically changed entirely, and you don't want to get completely stuck in the pre-2001 Steev Mike confusion - then it's best for us to focus on the more popular questions and answers from some people who claim that the real person who invented the Andrew WK is concept in itself. Some people have said that it's a different person from Andrew. Some have said it's an ex-manager or record label executive. Other people have thought that Steev Mike is an ex-band member, who actually wrote all the songs before quitting in 2004 (after not getting to play or produce the second AWK album, The Wolf). Other people have said that Steev Mike is actually Andrew WK himself, trying to make it look like someone else actually created him. Aditionally, there have been some people who have said that Steev Mike is actually Andrew's father, James E Krier, who has always been behind the entire Andrew WK project.

The following will give a basic set of informational tools to anyone looking to do further research into Andrew WK, his past, and Steev Mike...

FOR ANYONE WHO WANTS TO KNOW WHAT'S UP WITH STEEV MIKE:

Do your research, look at all the websites currently online, and read that long account on what happened in New Jersey in 2004. Have you looked at the sites and read the availble information? What do you notice? What themes arise? I got one for you: The "Sierra Mist Vs. Mountain Dew" thing. Those images turn up everywhere.

It's not a big secret that Sierra Mist and Mountain Dew are both owned by Pepsi. It's not a secret that Pepsi pits them against eachother for marketing purposes. It's not hard to imagine that Andrew WK was paid to make these sites. Who the fuck else would? Who the fuck else would "hack" his website in such an elaborate way, unless it was for some sort of paid advertisement? An endorsement deal with Pepsi Products? This could be the easiest answer for at least 25% of the biggest questions involving Steev Mike and the supposed blackmail campaign conspiracy.

FOR ANYONE WHO WANTS TO KNOW IF STEEV MIKE IS ANDREW'S TOUR BUS DRIVER:

I find the internet to be a reliable source, and the story about thinking that Andrew was Steev the bus driver is just not possible. If Steev Mike is indeed Andrew WK's bus driver, he must look a helluva lot like Andrew, because if someone actually mistook Steev for Andrew while Andrew was still signing autographs (this is in reference to the after-show incidents during the 2004 concert in New Jersey), then clearly he couldn't also have been the bus driver at the same time.

Is there a possibility that Steev Mike is somehow releated to Andrew WK? Sure - this is the old theory that Andrew's Dad, James E. Krier, is actually Steev Mike. But we have to think about the fact that Steev Mike doesn't look anything like Andrew, if in fact they were mistaken for each other. I'm assuming everyone has seen Andrew's immediate relatives: Mom, Dad, and brother Patrick (who is a cool fuckin dude if you've ever met him!). They all kind of have the same characteristics, but none could be mistaken for Andrew. So who the hell is Steev Mike? Obviously Steev Mike is not this guys real name. Are we talking about the possibility that Andrew has a twin brother? Or a look-alike cousin or something along those lines? As weird and eccentric as Andrew WK is, there is always a logical explanation for the strangest things, and I don't think the bus driver is the answer.

Andrew's real-life brother is a cool dude, but he doesn't drive buses. He's a professional golfer. I met him in Michigan a few times and I can assure you, that his bus driver WASNT his brother. Ive met his mother and his father. Actually, I've seen plenty of fans with PLENTY of pics to prove it. Someone may even have a photo of the bus driver, doubtful though. In any case, I'd like to hear the real story too, from someone on the inside of Andrew's business. After a few recent Andrew WK shows (where it looks and sounds like someone entirey different then AWK), I've even asked "Andrew" himself about Steev Mike and he said never to ask him about it again. So it's obviously a touchy subject.

STEEV, LIES, AND VIDEOTAPE:

There is one famous story about an Andrew WK fan named Rob who was hanging out backstage in PA, when he got the honor of video taping Andrew backstage before he went on. The weird thing was, Andrew noticed him and goes "HI ROB!!!" The weird part about it was Andrew was clearly mocking his voice. WHY? I have no idea... again, odd. If anybody has that video, it would be awesome to see it and get to the bottom of if that was actually Andrew or not.

FOR ANYONE WHO WANTS TO KNOW WHAT THE ORIGINAL STEEV MIKE LETTER SAID:

It's now official (see the Andrew WK Myspace Blog, and the article in the news section from November, 2008) that Andrew had a contractual agreement with his "creative manager" that went bad, and that his "creative manager" is prohibiting him from releasing CD's in the U.S. You can finally see this information written out, officially from Andrew. Do the research - it pays.

Here is the original letter from Steev Mike to Andrew, as it first appeared in 2005:

Dear Andrew W.K.,

To start with, let me say that I respect you and your fans very much. You know how much I believe in you and all that you stand for, because I stood for it first. You know how much I love your music, because I created it. You know that I love the way you look and act and talk and sing and dance because it was born in my brain.

Hopefully, by now you’ve noticed that I’ve hacked into the websites. Maybe you haven’t seen everything, but your fans have. In fact, your fans are well on their way to knowing the truth. I’ve been giving them bits and pieces, hoping that you’d come to your senses and stop trying to squeeze me out. Well, you haven’t responded to my initial requests and you’ve forced me to make threats. When you act unprofessional, so will I. Now I have no choice but to let the facts speak for themselves.

I never wanted it to come to this, but I can no longer wait in the background and ignore your complete disrespect. You’ve exploited the automatic disadvantage our agreement puts me in. Our choice to let you enjoy the spotlight, while I create the magic, leaves me almost helpless. You will not force me to expose myself until I expose you first.

I know that your quick rise to fame had clouded your memory concerning our partnership. I was willing to forgive your cruel and ignorant choices because you’re a young star. However, your recent efforts to exclude me from the 3rd album material will not be tolerated. I did not work for the last year on these new songs in order to have you break promises.

Your fans deserve to know the truth. Your fans are smart. That’s why I’ve put this same letter up on one of the many websites I’ve been creating in your name. By the time you read this, your fans will have already read it too. Don’t worry, I’ve made it very hard for all but the most dedicated A.W.K. fans to find, but know this: more and more people will find out the real story UNLESS you stop trying to sabotage our agreement.

I’ve chosen not to go to the press with this… yet. I do value our relationship, and I want to continue towards all that we initially planned, however if you refuse to comply, I will have no choice but to let the world know that you’re a backstabbing fraud.

Now it’s up to you.

Yours truly, Steev Mike

FOR ANYONE WHO WANTS TO KNOW ABOUT THE STEEV MIKE AND JIMMY COUP CONNECTION:

Has anyone ever thought about the possibility that Steev Mike is Jimmy Coup? Think about it. If Jimmy Coup wrote the letter above (keeping in mind that Jimmy was Andrew's backbone and motivator when he first started the band), he had the biggest passion for the music, he was without a doubt left out of the spotlight, and Jimmy could get a little hot at times, and then one day he disappeared, and shortly after, everything went to shit. I believe this is just one of many people who could be Andrew's "creative manager", and/or Steev Mike, and I simply want this to be debated. No rumors, no nothing - just debate. Think outside the box with this one...

First of all, why was he kicked out? I'm led to believe it was because he was (apparently) trying to upstage Andrew. Who decided he had to go? Andrew alone, or others? His manager? If Jimmy was Steev Mike, then maybe he left in protest because he wasn't included on The Wolf? Any other details? I don't think Andrew has spoken much, if at all, about it since.

Second of all, it has crossed my mind before that Jimmy is/was Steev Mike. It seemed to me that the 'Andrew W.K.' sound went different shortly after Jimmy left the band and it all went downhill from there. I find it hard to believe that with all his muscial ability Jimmy didn't play a part in the writing of IGW and The Wolf. For this reason, I tend to believe that it's between 25% and 30% possible that the whole Steev Mike name is just another name for Jimmy Coup. However, on the other hand, I don't find it hard to believe at all, considering much of the Andrew WK material was written/released in different incarnations before Andrew supposedly had a band.

DID ANDREW REALLY CUT HIS HAIR OR IS IT A SIGN OF A DIFFERENT PERSON?

Having studied psychology in school, I find it VERY interesting that some people actually think Andrew cut his hair, or that it has anything do to with his brain trauma or identity. I can talk from experience like that. When Andrew went missing after he fractured his skull during the 2001 show in London, he apparently had head trauma and was AWOL for 24 hours (this relates to the "DG", Dobie Gillis, Don Gilson and other psychic head trauma stories with Andrew and the 2003 MTV car crash from Your Friend, Andrew WK). We learned about situations when people really go through extremely dramatic changes when they cut their hair. Andrew's hair has clearly been how he viewed himself and his own personal image is a very strange, and strong feeling, especially when you add the fact that Andrew is a generally "odd" person to begin with.

i need to add something to this: when Andrew cut his hair (2006?) is also when his "creative manager" began to have a problem, because Andrew's hair was part of his image, and part of the Andrew WK name. And he was correct, cutting his hair was indeed "career suicide". But I would make the case now that Andrew is more popular than he was pre-haircut, since 2009. This also confirms my prior thought, that Andrew knew exactly the repercussions of cutting his hair. I believe the reason Andrew has not played a show with a band since that New Jersey show is simply because Andrew is not representative of the Andrew WK band name that is in the contract with his "creative manager". But then again, I believe he played shows after his haircut, but because of the voice change, and the different facial structure, it could still be a stand-in.

FOR ANYONE WHO WANTS THE REAL DEAL ON THE 2004 NEW JERSEY SHOW:

This show has a much bigger reputation than it's entitled to. Not because it wasn't important, but because the number of questions have not matched the number of answers, and the confusion has built up way too high. Clearly a lot happened before the actual time Andrew went on stage. The first song was Its Time To Party, but from what the typical audience reports say (people who were supposedly at the show), it was not actually Andrew WK on stage, and that he was forced to leave the stage early in his set. The reports of Andrew talking to fans after the show have basically discussed a voice change (which I think can be put down to Andrew learning to sing/speak differently). One of the main differences at the New Jersey show from all prior shows was the physical look and standing of Andrew. Most people have put this to a supposed weight change, which can have an impact. However, for the most part, I just think Andrew is very trained in that sort of thing, and if this stand-in was on stage, it wouldn't be hard to wear a white t-shirt and jeans and look like the old Andrew. I've heard him use dozens of different voices. I think his natural voice is probably a slightly less hyper version of the voice he used through the IGW/Wolf years. That would actually just be from about 8 years ago and I think that was his natural voice. Sounds really similar to how he used to sound, if not quite so rough. Keep in mind how much damage he must have done to his voice in the past, too.

DID ANDREW WK STOP PLAYING LIVE AFTER THE 2004 NEW JERSEY SHOW?

Contrary to many beliefs, some version of Andrew WK did do band shows in 2005 and 2006, even after what had happened in New Jersey. I don't know if the manager contract issue has anything to do with the conspiracy rumors, but I've been thinking it probably relates to the original issues Steev Mike had with Andrew getting all the credit for the music. I remember Andrew mentioning in an interview the expenses and things like that. Does anyone think part of the reason Steev Mike didn't play on The Wolf (but did on Close Calls With Brick Walls) because they simply fired him? I don't know.

FOR ANYONE WHO WANTS TO KNOW ABOUT THE PLASTIC SURGERY RUMORS:

This is my own personal opinion, but I think Andrew has had plastic surgery! I really do, probably not more than a couple operations or anything, but I don't think he has his own cheek bones anymore. I think he could easily afford to change his face as much as he could, but I seriously don't think he's going to do more or anything radical because of the management contract, and having to keep the image by legal arrangements.

I'm not sure everyone's legal background on the board, so you can choose to believe me or not, but I have no reason to lie about anything. I took a class that dealt specifically with contractual agreements in my 2nd year of college, so I have a general background. If Andrew signed a bad contract, or is limited in what he does now because of a bad contract, there's not much he could do about it unless he could prove that the contract was not entered in good faith, or possibly if one of them was under the influence of a substance when they signed (hard to prove), or prove that the contract is being used fraudulently against him, other than that he's pretty much fucked. If he did change his image using plastic surgery, there may not be a termination clause which says something like "blah blah, never release albums in the U.S. if you change your face", stuff like that means exactly what it says in contract language. Unless there are specific dates, never means never. I really think alot of that has to do with his image being drastically changed (which we now know wasn't Andrew's own choice). But I seriously believe Lyor Cohen fits in here with all this, one way or another, the more I read about him the more I think he's involved in this. I'm just trying to figure out the Steev Mike connection with Andrew and Lyor Cohen.

FOR ANYONE WHO WANTS TO KNOW ABOUT THE STEEV MIKE AND LYOR COHEN CONNECTION:

I will never forget this Steev Mike connection. I have had some interesting things to say up to this point, but a lot of people won't take it seriously when you bring it back to Steev Mike and Lyor Cohen. I admit that it does seem to simple to be true, but a lot of times, that the answer to the most complicated questions. If Steev Mike has always been Lyor Cohen (look him up on Google and you'll see how he relates to the early pre-2004 Island Def Jam years and the original record contracts), then that means almost all of the other stuff was set up by Andrew, to make it look like he was framed. That's the original conspiracy here, and I think it's still not the right answer. If we say that Lyor Cohen was the mastermind behind Andrew WK, we actually have proof that this man was the president of Andrew's record label during the time when Andrew was first signed (or when they hired Andrew Fetterly or whatever he was called, to be the front man for their new rock concept).

DID ANDREW SIGN A CONTRACT WITH STEEV MIKE IN 2001?

After I heard about Andrew's contract with his manager, I did some more research in some of the basic contract text books. The way it works is, when you sign a contract, Andrew's manager could've given him a million bucks, or some amount. Then, the manager would in exchange own the name of the band, the songs, the image, etc. Then Andrew would have to produce 5-7 albums. For the sake of ease of math, let's stick with 5 albums.

That million bucks is there to pay for the albums. That's what it's actually for. If you sign a 5 album deal for 1,000,000 dollars, you have a budget of 200,000 a record. You use that money to pay for production. Depending on the contract, you might have to put in for music videos too. The record company usually handles marketing and whatnot.

But what this means is that, over the course of the first 2 Andrew WK records, Steev Mike still had a valid contract. If this contract also involved Lyor Cohen and Island Def Jam, then Andrew WK (or Steev Mike, his manager) would have to make Lyor Cohen 1,000,000 dollars before he ever started to see residuals. Keep in mind, the record company only sees maybe 5 bucks of a CD sale. Also keep in mind that a record can artificially go Platinum if the company over produces the record. It's done for prestige sometimes. The retails then send back their extra copies.

THE KIT KAT TV COMMERCIAL AND STEEV MIKE:

We know that right before the 2004 New Jersey concert, Andrew made a Kit-Kat commerical (you can see this on YouTube if you search for Kit Kat Andrew WK). I saw these ads on TV for quite some time when it first came out, but it wasn't until I heard from people that Andrew was playing this song live that we could confirm that he had recorded it for the TV commercials. Andrew had also been on the radio specifically denying he had written it - was that because Steev Mike actually wrote it, or that Andrew was forced to make the commercial by the Steev Mike or Lyor Cohen contracts? This commercial played nationally, so it definitely made some major money. That means that every time it aired, on every channel, on every affiliate, Andrew or Steev Mike or Lyor Cohen got a check. If memory serves, that commerical also made it to Europe. And when it plays in different countries there they also make money.